WORDS: Roger Moroney
Harley-Davidson’s
LiveWire. Great lines
but lacking exhausts...
Click here to watch and hear Harley-Davidson's LiveWire
OLD HABITS DIE HARD...
hree of the bikes I have owned through
the years had aftermarket exhaust
pipes on them. In all three cases I
made the choice to do that rather than
steer a course back toward the items
they originally came equipped with.
In one case I had to take the replacement
path due to a crash wiping two of the four
(one side) out, and the other two occasions
came about through the existing systems sort
of falling victim to age.
So aftermarket sets they were, despite in one
case the system being more expensive than
what an original set would have cost. It was
for one reason... I liked the sound of the set I
had heard on another bloke’s 600 Kawasaki so
that was that. Ooh, and at 9000rpm they sure
fitted the bill.
So, okay, I was a whole lot younger then and
I steer away from those sort of revs now,
although I have never lost the love of fine
sound, so long as it is restrained to a point.
The great barking, exploding noises made
by the straight pipe things attached to giant
engines are not welcome anywhere, but as
there are no apparent noise restrictions or
stringently pursued compliance checks they
continue to litter the audio landscape. As will
the exhaust modified cars operated by young
pilots who have formed the impression that
the louder it is the more powerful it will be.
No, sorry, doesn’t really work that way. Take a
leaf from the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
While not a great fan or advocate of the
pathway to electric engines I must admit I was
astonished to sift through the times recorded
at this year’s festival.
Oh yes, the usual suspects like McLarens
and Porsches and Ferraris all scooted up the
picturesque climb rather rapidly, but it was a
Volkswagen which turned the heads. The sight
of it did because the sound of it wouldn’t have
alerted anyone it was coming, for the VW ID.R
was an electric powered beast.
Before arriving at Goodwood it had stunned
the motor-racing hordes at the Pikes Peak
hillclimb in Colorado.
It smashed all sorts of records and put in the
fastest time of the event, covering the 12.4
mile course in a time of seven minutes and 57
seconds.